Typically excellent paint finish from Bachmann, and the body moulding looks just like a 170. In particular, the front end captures the distinctive headlights and soft curves of the prototype. Finely moulded underframe detail is correctly picked out in grey.

Detail

There was a detail pack included (perhaps with a spare coupling?) but I didn’t see the need to fit any. All moulded detail is robust, with no breakages or bent parts.

Performance

Powered by a 5-pole motor in the centre car, this is plenty powerful enough for the 3 car unit. With pickups on 8 wheels there are no problems with stalling on insulfrog points. No DCC socket means that you’d have to hard wire a decoder should you be one of these modern technological types.

Maintenance

No maintenance required other than an occasional wheel clean – which says something in itself!

Comments

Excellent model with great looks and performance, only let down by the lack of DCC socket.